


Death Do Us Apart

by TsukkiNoNeko



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (Oya oya oya), (minimal), Afterlife, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst with a Happy Ending, Banter, Body Horror, Emotional, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, M/M, Plot Twists, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26480842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsukkiNoNeko/pseuds/TsukkiNoNeko
Summary: Kei thought marrying Kazuki was ideal.In the beginning, it was to save his family’s shop from going bankrupt. He was tired of seeing his parents and hisanikiin despair. The big corps said that they only wanted Kei’s hand in marriage with their eldest child for theirsupport.Now that the date for his wedding draws near, he’s starting to have second thoughts about the wedding. Yes, he initially agreed to this arrangement because he thought he was saving his family, but a loveless marriage?
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33
Collections: Luna & Noir: KuroTsuki Fest 2020





	Death Do Us Apart

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt 002, Corpse Bride AU. MCD is SOLELY because of the universe this is set in.
> 
> Author is very sorry they couldn't make this as fluffy as the prompter might have wanted.

Kei thought marrying Kazuki was ideal.

In the beginning, it was to save his family’s shop from going bankrupt. He was tired of seeing his parents and his _aniki_ in despair. The big corps said that they only wanted Kei’s hand in marriage with their eldest child for their _support_.

Now that the date for his wedding draws near, he’s starting to have second thoughts about the wedding. Yes, he initially agreed to this arrangement because he thought he was saving his family, but a loveless marriage?

He isn’t saying Kazuki is a bad man; in fact, he is super gentle and caring. The other man was nice to him from the beginning, but all that niceness wasn’t enough for Kei’s heart to fall for him.

“Why am I such a messed up little shit?” Kei asks himself as he spins the engagement ring that he wore around his neck with a chain. “Why isn’t there another way to do this?”

He tugs onto the ring a bit too harshly, resulting in the chain unclasping. The engagement ring starts to roll away from him, and with a curse, the tall man starts to chase after the ring.

“Ugh,” Kei grimaces when the ring stops on a white-coloured twig. “I guess—”

Kei does _not_ squeal when something _,_ some _one_ , comes out of the ground. He thinks he’s hallucinating after all the stress he’s been through. There’s no other way a _person_ would come out of the ground like this.

The person seems to be a male, possibly around his age, with unruly black hair that kinks out everywhere and a fringe covering the right side of his face. The other person—or he thought the other was a person until he looked down and found out that he… isn’t.

The other… _entity’s_ left arm is entirely skeletal and the same with his right leg. Clearly, this entity isn’t human, or isn’t human _anymore_.

“What are you?” comes the sensible thing out of Kei’s mouth.

“Your groom, it seems like,” the black haired _thing_ replies cockily. “After all, you proposed to me, have you not?”

“No! That’s—I dropped my ring!” he tries to explain. “I was playing with the ring and I dropped it!”

“Oh, that’s not how it works, honey… since you proposed to me regardless of the _how_ , I shall take you to _my_ world!”

Before Kei could utter a single word of refusal, the skeletal hand wraps around his wrist and tugs him _down_.

It feels like he’s falling forever. 

And he isn’t screaming this time either.

After what feels like an eternity of falling down, they land on something solid.

Wherever they are, Kei has a feeling he isn’t in the realm he’s used to anymore.

“Welcome to the Afterlife,” the black haired kidnapper grins a cocky grin. “Your new home.”

“The _Afterlife_ ,” Kei replies. “You’re well aware that I’m still alive?”

“That can easily change,” his kidnapper grins. “Oh, where are my manners. I’m Kuroo Tetsurou, your groom.”

“Tsukishima Kei, not that it matters,” he growls at Kuroo. “Kuroo-san, there’s been a mistake. Please let me out of here.”

“There was no mistake,” Kuroo rolls his eyes, as though exasperated. “You put a ring on my finger, and now I’m newly engaged to your oblivious ass, it seems.”

“I told you before you kidnapped me… that I actually fucking _dropped_ the ring and it happaned to have stopped where your stupid finger was!”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you proposed to me,” Kuroo rolls his eyes again. “You might as well as get used to being around here.”

“I am not staying!” he growls.

“Too bad you have to,” Kuroo hums. “By proposing to me, you have become a part of this world, Tsukishima Kei… you have to accept it.”

///

Kei gives up on reasoning with his kidnapper. 

He wonders what his family is doing right now. Time is hard to tell in this ghastly world, as there’s no such thing as the Sun he’s used to down here. Or the Moon, so yeah, he’s just fucked when it comes to finding out the time.

“You’re in the land of the dead, Tsukki,” the nickname flows out of Kuroo’s lips so easily, Kei wants to strangle that man. Well, it’s not like that’s going to be harmful, so maybe—

“A nickname?” Kei asks instead.

“Well, if we are to be wed, I suppose a little nickname won’t hurt, yeah?” Kuroo grins that cocky grin.

“It does hurt to accept the fact that I’m going to spend the rest of my life in the Afterlife as a groom to a zombie,” he heaves out a sigh.

“I’m not a zombie! Just a Dead,” Kuroo pouts. “Tsukki, don’t be mean to me~”

“I have no reason to be nice to you,” he retorts. “You kidnapped me, remember?”

“That was not _kidnapping_ , per se… just bringing you home!” Kuroo throws out his arms dramatically, his skeletal arm rattling from the movement.

“Well, you can bring me back to my _actual_ home,” he doesn’t necessarily miss everything about his former life, but he figures being alive in the realm of the living is better than being in the Afterlife.

Ignoring that he has to marry Kazuki without being in love.

When in reality, for all his life, he wanted to start a family with the man he loves and live his happily ever after.

Now, it feels that he will have to be a groom to a dead man who can’t seem to go a single minute without annoying the shit out of him.

  
  


“You’re thinking,” Kuroo comments. “What are you thinking about?”

“How do you know if I’m thinking or merely zoning out?”

“Your eyebrows were squished together like you were concentrated or something,” Kuroo grins. “May I ask what you were thinking about?”

“It’s a secret—”

“Hey, hey, hey!”

Kuroo looks delighted by the arrival of the new person, _no,_ new _people_. One has spiky silver hair with darker roots and the other has black hair. They both have skeletal features like Kuroo does.

“Bokuto,” Kuroo sounds elated. “You came at the right time!”

“What’s a living doing here?” the silver-haired man, Bokuto, asks.

“Oh, he’s my groom!” Kuroo stills sounds happy. 

“When my ring falls and lands on your fucking finger, it’ _s_ an _accident,”_ Kei tries to explain that once more. “Therefore, our ‘engagement’ is null.”

“The ring got onto his finger, sorry,” the black-haired main apologises, seemingly more civilised than the other two deads. “My name is Akaashi Keiji, and this,” he pats the silver-haired man on the shoulder. “Is Bokuto Koutarou.”

“Tsukishima Kei,” he isn’t in the mood for the introductions, but he was taught manners by his parents and his _aniki_.

_Nii-chan_ , Kei sighs. _Wonder what he’s doing._

He figures his _aniki_ is helping his parents open the shop if it’s morning right now. They always opened at 8am and closed at 6pm. Sometimes, Kei would be at the shop for a few hours if they needed an extra hand.

_Am I ever going to ever see my family again?_ Kei wonders, and that’s when his eyes start to prickle with tears.

“Shit, what’s wrong, Tsukki?” again, the nickname comes out of Kuroo’s lips so effortlessly, it’s like the skeletal man _cares_ about him even though they’ve known each other for a couple of hours.

“Oh, my kidnapper is asking me what is wrong,” Kei wipes at his tears angrily.

His breath gets caught in his throat when Kuroo’s fleshy hand and skeletal hand cup his face and wipes away his tears. It’s a tender gesture that makes his heart try to escape from the rib cage.

“I keep telling you, Tsukki, accidental or not—”

“So, you _do_ realise it was accidental,” Kei quips in.

“—you and I are engaged so it’s better if you stay in the Afterlife with me,” Kuroo sighs. “I… I’m sorry…”

“Oya, is Kuroo—”

“Please be quiet, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi sighs.

It’s weird to feel someone’s bone directly against his skin, Kei notes as Kuroo’s skeletal fingertips trace from his cheek down to his neck, until they are resting on his forearm. The fleshy hand is also down to his forearm now, but that isn’t what the taller man isn’t used to.

It’s like having the smoothest branch dance across his skin, to feel Kuroo’s skeletal hand against his skin. It’s foreign, and just as he’s getting used to the touch, Kuroo pulls his hands away.

“I probably overstepped my boundaries, sorry,” Kuroo apologises. “We should probably… get going.”

“Leaving with your groom so quickly, Kuroo?” Bokuto snickers.

“None of your damn business, Bokuto,” Kuroo gives the silver-haired man the middle finger. “Follow me, Tsukki?”

///

After many twists and turns, Kei finds himself in front of a house. It’s just a regular house with one floor. When they get inside, the interior reminds Kei of the one-room apartment he lived in when he was in college.

(His family couldn’t afford the tuition fees, but Kei got a full scholarship, so that was one good thing out of thousands of bad things that happened in Kei’s life. This kidnapping counts as one of the bad ones, _so far._ )

“Make yourself at home, Tsukki!” Kuroo grins.

“I don’t think I got any other choice,” he mumbles to himself.

He wonders if the dead bathes or showers. He kinda needs one right now.

“What’s wrong?” Kuroo asks, making himself comfortable on the bigger of the two sofas.

“Um, I need a shower,” he replies honestly.

“The door in the middle when you get past the living room area,” Kuroo hums. “I’ll have the clothes ready for you.”

///

Kei peeks out of the bathroom door when he’s done taking a shower. He quickly snatches the clothes and gets changed into them.

The boxers are a tad bit loose, but it’s not to the point they’ll go down. The joggers have the strings so he tightens them. The shirt, unfortunately, is too big on him, and the hem goes down past his ass.

“Are they okay?” comes Kuroo’s question.

“If you mean how they’re just all black, I suppose I don’t mind,” he answers honestly. “I should’ve figured since your current clothes are all black as well.”

It’s not a bad outfit, Kei won’t lie. A skin-tight black Henley and a pair of black jeans would look greater on someone who isn’t, well, his fucking kidnapper.

He does get that he put the ring on Kuroo’s finger, but the ring in question is _his_ own. The one Kazuki gave him as the _proof_ of their families union. All that stuff.

_Wait, without me, what’s going to happen to the arrangement?_ Kei gasps out loud. _Is Kazuki’s family going to pull out of the arrangement since I’m out of the picture unless I get the hell out of here?_

“Something wrong?” Kuroo tilts his head to the side.

“I think I left the stove on,” Kei lies.

“You remembered just now?” Kuroo’s head tilts even more.

“Maybe… I’m not exactly the most reliable person,” he shrugs. “If I did, someone from my family might have turned it off by now…”

“I’m sorry,” Kuroo blurts out. “I should be doing a better job at explaining things.”

“Obviously—”

Kei gasps from surprise when Kuroo’s arms loop around him in a loose hug. It’s like the skeletal man is afraid of overstepping his boundaries. 

And even though Kuroo is dead, the hug feels like the warmest one Kei’s ever received in his life.

///

It’s been three days since Kei got to the Afterlife. He’s been staying at Kuroo’s house since day one, and Bokuto and Akaashi would visit them everyday.

“How are the almost newlyweds?” Bokuto asks when he comes over.

“Bokuto-san, I told you that is not an actual term,” Akaashi sounds resigned.

“Then what do we call them?”

“‘The engaged couple’, maybe?” Akaashi prompts.

“We are not a couple though,” Kei deadpans. “I simply put a ring on his damn finger and—”

“—And now we’re getting married,” Kuroo intercepts. “He’s still in denial.”

_Denial of what?_ Kei growls inside his head. _I never agreed to this marriage, but you’re just insistent_.

“How cute,” Bokuto chuckles. “Well, last night, me and Akaashi…”

Hours pass by, or it would have been hours, Kei doesn’t know how time works in the Afterlife, before Bokuto and Akaashi go back to their place. Kei lets out a yawn as he walks away from the door.

He doesn’t hate Kuroo anymore, at least that’s what he believes. There was some resentment on the first day when he was freshly kidnapped by Kuroo, but he realised this meant that he is free from the previous engagement.

Yes, he feels guilty that he can’t help out his family with the bankruptcy anymore, but what can he do? Kuroo made it sound like he can no longer go back to the realm of the living.

He’d miss his family a lot, but if he can’t go back to the realm he belongs as a _living_ , then he guesses he has to accept his fate.

He’s noticed a few things about Kuroo too.

Despite the skeletal features the other, possibly older, man possesses, he is handsome. His lips look kissable to Kei, and he has dreamt about kissing those lips the other night.

He assumes his somewhat attraction to Kuroo is purely physical, that he just finds the skeletal man attractive to _look at_. That he hasn’t been in many relationships, someone like his technical kidnapper looks so tempting right now.

(He doesn’t mean _tempting_ , he means _beautiful_.)

Currently, he’s watching Kuroo sleep, sprawled onto the sofa like some kind of cat, what with one leg and one arm dangling from the furniture.

“You are one _very_ interesting person, Kuroo Tetsurou,” Kei mutters, knelt by the sofa without even realising. His hand shoots out on its own, cupping the other man’s chin and thumbing at the lower lip. “I bet you were a really popular bachelor when you were alive…”

_Why am I saying this?_ Kei wishes he knew the answer. _Just because he’s handsome doesn’t mean I’d say cheeky lines like that…_

His head dips before he realises it is, and when his nose is a few centimetres away from Kuroo’s, the skeletal man wakes up.

“Tsukki?” the other man sounds confused. “Why’s your face so close to mine…”

Kei basically leaps back, landing flat on his ass.

His subconscious mind seems to want closeness with Kuroo in the most physical sense possible, and the blond doesn’t think that is necessarily a good thing.

“I… I thought I saw something on the corner of your lips,” he tries to explain. “Y’know, like a grain of rice or something.”

“You saw something on the corner of my lips…” Kuroo sounds dazed, and Kei is glad that his technical fiancé is dazed right after waking up. “‘Kay, Tsukki… I might need more sleep though…”

“Before I met you, I didn’t even think the dead would _need_ sleep,” he mutters before he can help himself.

“You didn’t think we’d sleep?” Kuroo laughs, and what a goodhearted laugh it is. “We’re still human, aren’t we?”

“Technically speaking, yes,” he replies. 

“Well, that’s precisely why we need sleep to function. We’re dead, but we still ‘live’ like the living,” Kuroo grins that cocky grin Kei is starting to find solace in.

“Speaking of living… I need food, Kuroo-san,” he tells his fiancé.

Thirty minutes later, they’re eating curry together. He wants to ask the dead how a dead person still needs to eat, but he figures that’s going to give him answers that he doesn’t want to hear.

He’s just glad his fiancé is actually kind to him. He doesn’t know why Kuroo is so excited to get married to him though. He’s just an everyday person who accidentally dropped his ring onto the other’s finger. Nothing else.

_Does he find me attractive?_ the thought brings heat to his cheeks. _I mean, he isn’t ugly or anything…_

“Tsukki~” Kuroo hums. “You got some sauce on your lips.”

“I’ll—”

Kuroo reaches over the counter and thumbs at the blob, wiping it away.

Kei can _feel_ his blush worsening.

“Is the curry okay?” Kuroo asks, as if not able to see how horribly flushed Kei’s entire face is by now.

“It’s good, don’t worry, Kuroo-san,” Kei smiles at the skeletal man.

  
  


After having their lunch, Kei asks Kuroo if they can go outside for a bit. He just wants some fresh air, and Kuroo says he’ll accompany him. They get dressed into Kuroo’s clothes, (Kei gets a black knit sweater and a pair of black trousers while Kuroo gets himself a black polo and a black pair of jeans that are ripped down the length of the legs) and set out for the park near Kuroo’s house.

The park is a nice place. It reminds him of the one back in Sendai where he used to play with his _aniki_ a lot as a small child. He remembers one snowy winter day, building a snowman with his _aniki_ , and—

“What’s wrong?” Kuroo’s skeletal hand cups his face and wipes under his eye. Kei realises he’s crying.

“I guess I miss my family,” Kei answers truthfully. “I didn’t get to say goodbye to any of them.”

“That’s partially my fault, but you belong with the dead now,” Kuroo looks remorseful. “You can _become_ a Dead, too, you know.”

“Are you saying I should die?” Kei narrows his eyes.

“Well, this _is_ the land of the dead, the Afterlife, Tsukki,” Kuroo gulps. “You can’t stay here forever if you’re a living.”

“Oh,” he feels dumbfounded. “I didn’t know it worked that way.”

“It does,” Kuroo hangs his head low in shame. “I’m sorry for not telling you before bringing you here.”

“How long do I have left as a living?” Kei asks his fiancé.

“Does it matter?”

“I still deserve to know since I was basically kidnapped,” he crosses his arms.

“You can only be in the Afterlife for a fortnight as a Living before you have to become a Dead yourself,” Kuroo tells him. “And if not, then they’re going to… take you away.”

“Take me away?” he narrows his eyes.

“No one knows what happens when a Living gets taken away,” Kuroo shakes his head. “And I don’t think we wish to find out either.”

“Has a living ever been down here before me?” Kei decides that’s a very valid question.

“That’s a good question,” Kuroo cups his chin with his thumb and his curled index finger. “But it’s not something that is important to us.”

“Would you allow them to take me away, Kuroo-san?” he asks, sounding weaker than he intended to.

Kuroo looks at him with emotions the living can’t quite decipher. It looks like Kuroo is already attached to him, but is that a mutual situation?

“I won’t let them take you away, which is why you must die within next few days, Tsukishima Kei.”

///

It’s been a week since Kei has come down to the Afterlife. 

He’s gotten used to the atmosphere by now. He doesn’t think about his family as often as he used to when he first came here. He still wants to go home, yes, but he believes he’s found a new home with a certain Kuroo Tetsurou.

Currently, his fiancé is curled up on his lap, basically like a cat. He can practically see the figurative black tail on top of his thigh.

“I know you’re awake, Kuroo-san,” Kei scoffs as he places his hand near his fiancé’s unruly black hair.

“And what if I am?” Kuroo sounds petulant like a child. “Your lap is so nice to rest on.”

“You’re not a cat, now are you?” he voices his inner thoughts.

“Well, but your lap is still nice,” Kei doesn’t have to physically see Kuroo’s face to see that he’s pouting right now.

“You’re insufferable,” he huffs.

“And you’re kind of into it,” Kuroo laughs good-heartedly.

“Don’t be so sure,” he shakes his head. “I’m still not over the fact that you kidnapped me.”

“I had no other choice! You proposed to me, so you were better off here,” Kuroo insists.

It’s become somewhat of an inside joke between them. Even when the ‘joke’ isn’t all that funny to both parties.

_Have I gotten used to this man?_ Kei wonders as he finds the courage to start carding his fingers through Kuroo’s hair. _I feel different than I did around Kazuki… they’re both good men, but Kuroo? It’s like I can drop all my defenses and false pretenses… he brings out something I never got to experience before_.

He doesn’t like it.

He doesn’t like not knowing what this fuzzy feeling inside him is.

“Tsukki…” Kuroo sounds sleepy.

“Yes, Kuroo-san?”

“Your fingers feel so nice in my hair…” Kuroo mumbles, sounding half asleep.

When Kuroo falls asleep, Kei doesn’t stop stroking his surprisingly soft hair.

“You aren’t a cat, but you still fell asleep on my lap because I was stroking your hair, Kuroo-san…” he starts, not knowing why he’s even saying this. “I find that quite… _cute_.”

He dips his head down to press his lips to his fiancé’s cheek.

///

When Kuroo wakes up later that day, Kuroo suggests going over to Bokuto and Akaashi’s place. Since he’s also gotten used to the other two skeletal men, he just agrees.

“Bokuto is whipped for Akaashi,” Kuroo hums as they start walking over. “They knew each other when they were both alive.”

“Oya?” Kei is intrigued now.

“Yeah… they were both born in the start of the twentieth century,” Kuroo continues. “Bokuto was to wed this beautiful woman, according to Akaashi anyways, I doubt Bokuto considers anyone besides _Akaashi_ beautiful, but it was more arranged than anything. Akaashi was his childhood friend he fell in love with. Rather than marrying a woman he couldn’t love, Bokuto decided to elope with Akaashi.”

“I don’t think that worked out well,” he quips in.

“No, they got caught, and Bokuto was basically forced to hold a wedding ceremony the next day,” Kuroo grimaces. “Mind you, people were even less lenient about homosexuality back in the 1900s then they are now.”

“What happened next?”

“They committed a lover’s double suicide,” Kuroo states like he’s talking about a couple sharing a sundae. “And they came here after that, obviously.”

  
  


“Hey, hey, hey!” Bokuto greets them enthusiastically when Kei and Kuroo arrive at his place. “I see you’re still alive.”

“That can change legit any second,” Kuroo refutes. “It’s up to Tsukki when he decides to join the Dead.”

“I’m right here,” Kei rolls his eyes. “I just… you said I have a fortnight since the day I arrived here.”

“And it’s been half that time period already,” Akaashi appears out of nowhere. Kei really has to get used to that part of the dead.

How stealthy they may be at times, that is. He gets led inside, to the living room area.

“Yes, I just want to enjoy the days of being alive,” Kei replies honestly. “I may be stuck here, but I still want to keep being alive as long as possible.”

“Leaving your death until the last moment is risky,” Akaashi advises him. “You’ve heard from Kuroo-san that you can get taken away, I assume?”

“I—”

Kei realises there’s nothing good about continuing to resist. His reasoning of wanting to be alive as long as possible sounds like bullshit to himself.

“… how are you going to kill me anyways? I doubt you guys keep a weapon around here to slice my head off?”

“We are not barbaric, Tsukki,” Kuroo sounds jovial, too jovial when they’re discussing his death. “We have poison for that!”

“Why… do you have poison handy?” Kei has to ask.

“It’s one of those ‘just in case’ kinda stuff’,” Kuroo shakes his hand dismissively.

“Kuroo-san…”

“There are places a living would go to so they can join their loved dead in death,” Kuroo sighs. 

“Did you lie to me when you said you don’t know whether a Living was brought here or not, Kuroo-san?”

“Tsukki—”

Kei bolts out of Bokuto and Akaashi’s place, tears streaming down his cheeks.

///

Kei doesn’t understand himself. He doesn’t know why he’s been crying for the last hour or so. He’s only known Kuroo for a week. A week shouldn’t be enough for him to feel this _betrayed_ that the skeletal man lied to him.

People lie all the time, Kei knows this.

_Why does it hurt?_ Kei wonders, slowing down until he stops by the bench. 

The tall blond plops down onto the bench and wipes away his tears angrily, looking at his tear-stained glasses. He cleans his glasses lenses as well, trying to calm himself down in the meantime. 

_I don’t know Kuroo well. He shouldn’t mean this much in my life already!_ he gets angry at himself. _He means nothing to me!_

For the last week, Kuroo has been nice to him. He’d flash that cocky smile at him no matter what, reassuring him. There were times he was afraid a dead might report him or something along that line for being a living among the dead. Every time he’d get paranoid, Kuroo would hold his hand and—

_Am I falling for him?_ Kei feels heat rushing to his dampened cheeks. _That’s not possible! I couldn’t fall for Kazuki when I’ve known him for months! I’ve known Kuroo for a mere week!_

But there’s no mistaking the twinge of hurt in his heart because he found out Kuroo lied to him at least once. Who knows if the skeletal man has lied to him more than that?

“Tsukki!” 

_No way_.

“How’d you find me, Kuroo-san?” Kei scowls at his fiancé.

“I guess I followed my heart,” Kuroo replies.

“Your heart no longer beats,” he scowls harder.

“Does it matter?” Kuroo kneels in front of him and takes his hands, the skeletal hand sending chills down his arm. “Tsukki… I know I shouldn’t have lied to you, but I didn’t want to dwell on the fact that the living might come down here more often than you might know—more than _I_ might know.”

“So?”

“So, I’m trying to say that I’m sorry,” Kuroo’s voice seems shaky.

And before Kei can help himself, he lowers his head and presses his lips to the dead man’s.

///

“Sorry we just ran off like that, Bokuto,” Kuroo grins at his friend as they re-enter Bokuto and Akaashi’s place. “I hope the tea isn’t cold…”

“It’s not,” Akaashi’s sharp eyes follow Kei’s gaze. “I’m glad you found Tsukishima-san, Kuroo-san.”

“Me too,” Kuroo grins once more before taking a seat on the sofa next to Kei.

_Too_ close to him on the damn furniture.

“So, when do you plan on dying, Tsukishima?” Bokuto deadpans.

“Isn’t it sooner the better?” Kei asks.

“Technically, yes,” Kuroo answers. “But as long as it’s within next eight days, I don’t mind.”

“You really don’t want me to be taken away, do you?” he smiles small at his fiancé.

“Of course, you’re my groom-to-be,” Kuroo replies without giving anything away.

_///_

_When Kei presses his lips to Kuroo’s, Kuroo lets out a surprised gasp, but doesn’t pull away. Since they’re out in public, the blond doesn’t try to deepen the kiss._

_“Why did you do that?” Kuroo asks when Kei pulls away after a moment or two._

_“Because,” Kei replies. “I’m pretty sure I’m falling for you, Kuroo Tetsurou.”_

_“Oh, thank the gods,” Kuroo whispers, their breaths mingling. “I’m falling for you too.”_

_///_

They get back to Kuroo’s place before dinner. Kei is still getting used to how the time system works in the Afterlife, but he thinks he’s getting a good hang of it.

“You know,” Kuroo starts, chopping a carrot. “I think we should talk about what happened this afternoon.”

“You mean the kiss?” Kei lets out a small sigh. “We like each other, there’s nothing more to it.”

“I didn’t bring you here just because you put a ring on me,” Kuroo flashes the engagement ring. “I guess it was something akin to ‘love at first sight’.”

“Without the actual love part,” _‘cause it’s too early for love_. “So, when we get wed, how does that work?”

“We just need two witnesses saying they saw us getting married. Oh boy, it was hard to find someone other than me for Bokuto and Akaashi.”

“They’re married but they didn’t take one’s family name?” he’s surprised to find out.

“They didn’t see the appeal to it, I guess,” Kuroo shrugs. “Anyways, why, you are thinking about our wedding seriously?”

“We may not be in love, right now, but I did… put a ring on you,” Kei hums. “And you’re a good man, Kuroo Tetsurou.”

Kei looks at his groom in an affectionate way, thinking nothing can change his happiness.

Or so he thought…

+++

Kuroo Tetsurou has always been a conniving one.

He made sure he’d get _connected_ to a Living so he has the reason to _be_ one once more.

Both Koutarou and Keiji advised him against it. Said it’s too risky.

But here he is, about to become married to a Living.

“Kuroo-san,” Kei calls out to him. “What should I wear for our… wedding?”

The red tint smearing across the living’s cheeks is adorable. It’s the type of innocence he has yet to ruin. 

“I think a traditional white is good, but…” Tetsurou hesitates from speaking his true mind.

“Yes?” Kei tilts his head to the side.

“I think black would look good on your pale skin,” he replies honestly.

More red smatters across Kei’s pale cheeks.

“I think we can just… move on from the talk of my wedding suit,” Kei sounds shy.

“Are you worried about our honeymoon night?” Tetsurou waggles his eyebrows. “Don’t worry, my d—”

Kei is quick to shove a piece of bread in his mouth.

“Kuroo-san,” Kei sounds like he’s giggling. “I think we both know better than to _assume_ who’s going to top.”

“Oya, you aren’t a pillow—” he is muffed around his mouthful.

Another bread chunk is shoved in his mouth.

///

After a joyful conversation about their wedding suits, they go to a park near the central plaza. There are kids around, kids that were born in the Afterlife, those who never learnt of the Sun in the Realm of the Living.

“They died young, huh?” Kei sounds pensive.

“Yeah…” Tetsurou lies instead of choosing to tell the easy truth. “The world isn’t full of sunshine and rainbows.”

“But I met you,” Kei sounds like he meant to say that inside his head.

Red smatters all over Kei’s handsome face.

_You aren’t supposed to actually fall for him, Kuroo Tetsurou!_ Tetsurou reminds himself as he looks at his fiancé in a curious way.

If he looks _really_ hard, he can find a small, barely visible scattered Milky Way of freckles across Kei’s nose area.

Before he can help himself, Tetsurou finds himself leaning forward and kissing those freckles.

“Kuroo-san?” Kei sounds just as confused as he.

“Um…” Tetsurou is lost for words. “I just… don’t couples do that?”

“Usually, they show some kind of sign that they will do… such a thing,” Kei looks as startled as Tetsurou feels.

“Forget that happened,” he sighs. “I just—”

Tetsurou can feel his unbeating heart stopping once more when Kei giggles and presses his strawberry-coloured lips to his cheek and whispers,

“I know you like me just as much as I like you, Tet-chan…”

///

Tetsurou means it when he says he’ll be damned.

Even in the Afterlife, there are places he tries to avoid.

Like the Pit, where it’s directly connected to a Realm akin to Hell.

Only the Damned Souls are cast away into the Pit, only to be never to be seen again. 

Kuroo Tetsurou doesn’t know how many fuck-ups he can manage before he, too, is cast away into the Pit. He learnt that all the souls are given a certain amount of Chances before they’re gone forever.

“Tet-chan?”

“Tsukki,” Tetsurou doesn’t know where to start. “Do you… are you aware of the situation you’re in?”

“I know I can trust you,” Kei replies.

“You shouldn’t trust me, that’s what I’m trying to tell you!” he grabs onto his fiancé’s shirt collar. “I have been deceiving you from Day One.”

“Kuroo-san,” a cold, breath-stealing grin flashes across Kei’s face. “Did you think for a second I trusted you 100%?”

“That’s what I was hoping for, yes,” he’s confused. “What are you saying, Kei-chan?”

Kei slaps Tetsurou’s hand away.

“I’m saying…” Kei’s cold smile only grows. “I was hoping I would get whisked away by someone.”

  
  


Tetsurou can’t believe he got swindled by a fucking _Living_.

“I was in debt by a tonne,” Kei starts explaining. “I was desperate to get out of my engagement without any penalty given to my parents.”

“And how do I play into this twisted game of yours?” he dares ask.

“I was doing my research,” Kei giggles. “See, I knew that the leylines were a thing in the area I was walking home the day I got newly engaged to you.”

“The leylines…” Tetsurou tries to remember. “The magical borders between the humans and…”

“Mages,” Kei nods. “Mages used to be huge back in the day.”

“Are you trying to say that you’re a mage, Tsukishima Kei?”

Kei’s eyes gleam like the full moon before he parts his lips to answer, an outline of a black crescent moon appearing on his forehead.

“Mayhaps.”

///

Tetsurou never once believed in such a thing as _magic_ in his life even when he’s a skeletal man _un_ living with his friends. Yes, he’s a Dead, he should’ve fucking expected his _existence_ had to do with some kind of magic but _this_?

“Listen,” Kei’s dainty hand reaches out to grab his skeletal wrist. “I lost my memories when I was transported here.”

“You lost your memories…” Tetsurou is rightfully sceptic.

“More precisely…” Kei wrinkles his nose as he thinks hard. “They tried to take my memory away when they tried to marry me off to that rich man… Kazuki.”

“Kazuki?” the skeletal man cannot recall if that name has been brought up before. “Your old fiancé… was he a mage too?”

“From what I can tell… he was a lesser mage who needed to siphon off of stronger mages,” Kei continues to explain. “That’s why my parents were so quick to sign me off.”

“And that’s why you were trying to run away from your… predicament,” he’s trying real hard to understand here. “But you would’ve been pampered by that new groom of yours.”

“It was a loveless vow I had yet to take,” Kei whines. “I always dreamt of a romantic wedding where I’d kiss the lips of the man I love.”

“You love me,” Tetsurou almost chokes on his air.

“I am getting there, yes,” Kei nods. “I think… I just needed you to be 100% honest with me before I fell for you all over again.”

“How much trust are we talking?” he asks. “‘Cause I was planning on using you to be alive again, Tsukki! I was trying to use _you_ so I can become a part of the Realm of the Living!”

“So?” Kei sounds naïve. “I just wanted you, no one else.”

“That sounds like a—”

Kei kisses him.

And he kisses the mage back with all the passion and sorrow he feels in his unbeating heart.

///

Mages can produce just about anything, as Tetsurou learnt in the last two hours.

Koutarou and Keiji walk into his place after they’re done having some fun, and Keiji is the first to wrinkle his nose in disgust when he sees that they’re both shirtless.

“Have some decency, Kuroo-san!” Keiji throws a random, old shirt at him that is just lying around the floor.

“I am decent!” Tetsurou pouts at his fiancé. “I’m wearing a pair of worn joggers!”

“That doesn’t mean you’re decent!”

“Arguing healthily as ever,” Keiji shakes his head in amusement.

“I really don’t like your husband, Koutarou,” Tetsurou remarks.

They have a simple black tea as they chat about how to get rid of the little bug infestation at Koutarou and Keiji’s place. Kei looks so surprised that bug problems are a thing even in the Afterlife.

“So, as I was telling Tsukki…” Tetsurou decides to bring it up. “Our wedding will be a small ceremony.”

“Just the four of us and someone to act as the person to pronounce you husband and husband?” Keiji raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah… just need two people to witness us becoming one,” he scratches at the back of his head. “I just can’t wait to be a Tsukishima.”

“I thought I was taking your family name?”

“You’re a mage, Tsukki,” Tetsurou shakes his head. “I thought it was important for mages to carry down their lineage?”

“How would you know that?”

“I heard stories,” Tetsurou shrugs. “Besides, Kuroo Kei sounds like you’re a dark version of something.”

“I like the sound of Kuroo Kei,” Kei protests in a petulant way.

Koutarou and Keiji leave them to discuss their future by themselves, leaving in a hurry. Tetsurou wonders if Keiji knows what’s really up.

“I guess you know what’s up,” Kei sighs heavily. “I am not a regular mage, nor do I want to be this way. I’m from theMmoon Clan, born of the Moonlight.”

“So…” he holds the back of his neck. “You can harness the power of the Moon.”

“That’s precisely what I’m saying, Kuroo-san,” Kei nods. “Are you scared of me yet?”

“I’m a skeletal man who was living his life merrily until a certain brat showed up in his life,” Tetsurou shakes his head. “I’m glad you decided to make my Unlife exciting.

///

The night goes by fast when they’re both having fun. When Tetsurou wakes up and the Underground Sun is shining down on them, he can see the forming marks littering his fiancé’s shoulders and chest area. He hums and kisses Kei on the mouth in a vain effort to wake him up.

“No…” Kei groans, turning away from his kisses. “Need more sleep…”

“You can sleep more after breakfast!” Tetsurou hopes he’s making sense to a sleepy Kei.

“… no,” Kei is adamant this morning. “I said I need more sleep—”

“I won’t give you more kisses if you don’t wake up now,” Tetsurou decides to try threatening.

“… you’re the worst,” Kei whines as he opens his moon-coloured eyes. “What’s for breakfast?”

“Glad you asked.”

Tetsurou serves freshly-made omelettes and bacon strips for his beloved while he goes for fried eggs and a couple of toasts. They both opt for a glass of peach-mango juice each, and they just bask in each other’s presence until Kei wakes up fully.

“You left marks on me!” Kei tries to cover up his torso.

“And what glorious marks they are!” Tetsurou laughs as he watches his fiancé’s entire face and neck area go beet-red. “They’ll fade away when you die!”

“Oh yeah, my death,” Kei huffs. “When am I dying anyways?”

“Anyday you wanna die is the day you will become a Dead with me, Tsukki,” Tetsurou reaches across the table to cup his beloved’s chin, smearing at the ketchup that is dotting his Cupid’s bow.

“You’re so casual about my death,” Kei hums. “I can easily revive myself since, as a Moonlight Mage, I have one chance to revive myself.”

“Why is it so?” _Don’t get so excited now, Kuroo Tetsurou._

“‘Cause we’re so vulnerable,” Kei replies without suspecting anything. “We’re a rare breed. Even within my family, I’m the first in many _, many_ generations to become the Mage who is bathed in the Moonlight.”

“So… you can’t revive someone else?” Tetsurou decides there’s no harm in asking.

“If there was,” Kei’s eyes glow in a way that isn’t human. “I would have done so many years ago.”

“You lost someone you cared about,” he guesses.

“There was this cousin I had… Hikari,” Kei looks down at his knees. “He was very close to me. He had a knack for setting everything on fire but… my immunity and affinity for ice kind of cancelled that out…”

“Why am I detecting a sob story?”

“It is one,” Kei snaps. “Because I couldn’t control myself, I sapped his life force away instead of sucking out the magical poison.”

///

“Tsukishima Kei!”

Tetsurou flings his body towards his fiancé when he sees him again.

He throws his arms around that slender frame and cups his face in his palms, looking into those full-moon coloured eyes.

“I won’t let you be this reckless!” he hisses at the man he grew to love.

“What choice do you have?” Kei laughs disdainfully. “You died to protect me in another lifetime!”

“That’s what you think this is all about, Kei-chan?” Tetsurou snarls at his lover. “Just because we share a past life—”

“It’s not just one!” Kei screeches. “It was all our lives before this one!”

“Kei-chan…”

“You just want excuses to be out of my life like everyone else!” Kei continues to yell. “First it was _nii-chan_ , and now it’s you!”

“Listen to me!”

Tetsurou was never good with words, so he presses his lips to Kei’s instead.

Kei moans into the kiss, as though trying to push his words past his lips, but it’s to no avail. 

They get lost in the world of kisses and touches, blocking out the rest of the world as they sink onto their bed.

/// 

Tetsurou is surprised to find Kei still snuggled up to him when he wakes up. Kei looks so small and delicate in the ‘morning sun’ equivalent of the Afterlife.

His mind goes back to how Kei yelled out how they spent their other lifetimes together. It’s an endearing thought, the possibility of them being _soulmates_.

“But is it actually possible?” he muses to himself as he watches the light blond of Kei’s hair turn into darker shade of blond from the lighting.

“… did you say something, Kuroo-san?” Kei murmurs.

“I don’t like it when you call me that,” Tetsurou confesses.

“Do you want me to call you… Tet-chan instead?” Kei yawns.

“It’s cuter than ‘Kuroo-san’,” he chuckles, nuzzling his nose against Kei’s.

“… if you wish, Tet-chan…”

Kei falls back to sleep after their little talk. Tetsurou wanted to ask his fiancé about the Realm of Magic, since that’s where the portal from the Afterlife is probably connected to. He’s only assuming from the books he’s read as a child many _, many_ years ago.

“You can just ask instead of thinking really hard, you know that, Tet-chan?” Kei giggles when he boops at his nose.

“Ask you what?” Tetsurou pretends to bite at Kei’s fingertip.

“You’re thinking so hard, I can almost feel your emotions,” Kei answers. “You’re lucky I never trained to learn people’s minds… anyways…”

Tetsurou’s heart does a big flip-flop when Kei gets closer, their _lower regions_ almost touching. 

“I heard you can get excited in the morning, Tet-chan…”

“I think that’s right _now_ ~”

  
  


Tetsurou princess-carries Kei to their kitchen after a little morning delight. Kei demands he makes as many strips of bacon as possible, which he obliges.

“I still find it amusing the Dead have to eat,” Kei hums as Tetsurou feeds him the strip of bacon.

“I still find it amusing you are in love with me,” Tetsurou replies.

Silence.

“I didn’t say that I’m in love—”

“You don’t have to say it out loud to be ‘official’, you know,” Tetsurou finds his fiancé so cute with everything he does. “I just know.”

“Don’t say in your heart,” Kei relaxes. “‘Cause that will make me fall for your silly self even more.”

“But I _do_ know it in my heart that you are in love with me!” he protests half-heartedly. “Tsukki~”

Tetsurou reaches over the table to hold onto his beloved’s shirtfront, garnering a surprised gasp.

“You forget I’m a physical person,” Tetsurou kindly reminds his fiancé.

“You forget I can do literal magic,” Kei clicks his tongue.

“Oya? What’s in store for me then?”

Tetsurou laughs when he gets booted away from Kei. He just goes back to the dining table and continues to eat breakfast.

  
  


After breakfast, Koutarou and Keiji come over, like usual. They chat about nothing in particular when someone knocks on the door.

“Why would anyone come here at 11am?” Tetsurou shrugs at Koutarou’s question.

“Kuro.”

The nickname is one he hasn’t heard in a while.

In fact, he hasn’t heard it since the day he died.

“Kenma?”

He opens the door out of curiosity.

Surely, it’s his best friend from Living years.

“How are you here?” Tetsurou covers his mouth with his hand.

“I died, Kuro,” Kenma looks sad. “And they came to me.”

“‘They’?” 

“They want me to take Tsukishima,” Kenma whispers. “They know he’s a mage.”

“I’m right here,” Kei growls and teleports to where they are stood. “What do you mean, they want you to ‘take’ me?”

“It’s been close to a fortnight since you came to the Afterlife, Tsukishima,” Kenma deadpans. “The Council isn’t happy that you’re still a Living.”

“I haven’t…“ Kei looks uncertain of what he wants to say. “I will take the poison then. But first…”

+++

Draining himself of his magic is harder than he thought.

He’s been a mage all his life, minus the days he lost his memories, so the act of draining his magic for the sake of his beloved seems like he’s overdoing it.

“Kei-chan,” Tetsurou steadies him. “If you can’t do this, then we can always go for Plan B.”

“Where you steal my life force and I resurrect myself?” Kei scoffs. “Stealing one’s life force is a serious crime, Tet-chan. I won’t allow you to do such a thing.”

“But—”

“Trust me, Kuroo Tetsurou, I have done bad things in my life that makes me regret everything until the night I met you.”

He initiates a kiss, a kiss of sleep that would make Tetsurou sleep for at least eight hours. He doesn’t feel any guilt as he continues to drain himself of magic.

“Fuck…” he can feel his body starting to protest from the lack of magic in his circuit, but he goes on and on until only a sliver of magic remains inside his body.

He uses that sliver of magic to amplify the effects of the poison, hoping it would kill him for good.

And then he takes it.

///

Because Kei is a mage, his soul is lingering near the biggest source of magic after his death. The source being, of course, his dead body trying to reabsorb the magic into his body. He knows that if he doesn’t do anything quick, he’ll be resurrected into his own body.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?”

Kei turns around so fast, his glasses almost fall.

“Kenma-san?”

“Kozume Kenma…” Kenma, Kozume, muses. “That was the name I went by when I was living with Kuro.”

“I get that you had a history with Kuroo-san—”

“I don’t have the type of history you think I do with Kuro,” Kozume shakes his head. “We were brothers, basically, and he never wanted to be more than that. I personally didn’t care as long as I got to see him happy.”

“This is the Realm of Magic,” Kei realises a moment too late. “How are you…”

“Isn’t it easy to tell?” Kozume grins like a cat. “I’m a mage myself.”

“But you’re a Dead!”

“You can be dead and still practise magic,” Kozume lets him know. “I found that out the hard way.”

“If I allow my body to continue to gather magic… I’ll be resurrected,” he grunts. “I can’t be with Tet-chan…”

“You will become a person with no memories or emotions,” Kozume quips in. “Because your soul abandoned the body once, it’ll work as a reset.”

“You aren’t here to tell me I don’t have a future with Tet-chan.”

“I’m an archmage, my dear Tsukishima,” Kozume grins once more. “I’m here to help you.”

///

Kei can tell that he’s dead.

He can feel the wisps of magic licking at the tips of his fingers as he opens his eyes to stare into the golden iris he fell for a while ago. His first instinct is to rise up and hug his fiancé tight.

“Don’t _ever_ do that again!” Tetsurou chides him. “I thought you died for good!”

“… can’t really leave you alone by yourself, now can I?” Kei smiles weakly. “You can’t live without me and I you.”

“Oh my gods, dying made you a sap,” Tetsurou jokes. “When I woke up, you were out cold. You weren’t even _breathing_ . I carried you to our bed and started praying to whichever god decided to deign to listen to me and I started hearing _something_.”

“Heard something?”

“Some kind of voice…” Tetsurou squints as if to focus on his thinking. “It was telling me not to worry.

_That must have been Kozume-san_ , Kei reasons with himself. _He said that he wants Tetsurou to be happy_.

“ _Nee_ , Tetsurou,” Kei cups Tetsurou’s face in his hands. “What say you that we get married today?”

  
  


Finding black suits for rental that are the size of two men over the height of 190cm isn’t an easy feat, apparently, but they manage anyhow, and they are currently at Bokuto-san and Akaashi-san’s place.

“Ah, what a cute couple you two make!” Bokuto-san bellows. “This is such a special moment!”

“Bokuto-san,” Akaashi-san sighs. “We are merely witnesses to their union, please keep your cool.”

And by the time Bokuto-san and Akaashi-san are done, Kuroo Kei and Kuroo Tetsurou are pronounced married.

Dead, but married for their happily ever after.


End file.
